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How to gain your hamster trust

Hamster can be a perfect choice for a kid’s first pet. They are pretty, easy to handle and quite cheap animals. However, hamsters on default aren’t that friendly. If they feel in danger, they are capable of biting. Don’t worry though, if you put enough time and patience your hamster will learn that you are not a predator, but his best friend. As it is with all other species, it is much easier to train and domesticate your hamster when he is young. Older hamster, especially if someone before you didn’t treat him nice, maybe not that easy to accept you.

Let your hamster accommodate to the new situation.

Moving from one place to another is a stressful situation for a hamster. The best thing you can do to minimize this unpleasant feeling is to leave him alone for a couple of days. Don’t put your hands into the cage, don’t stick your fingers through the bars, don’t talk to him, just let him rest. During this time he will get familiar with his new surroundings. You need also to make sure that you bought the best cage for your hamster. What does it mean? Basically, “the best” means the largest, but definitely not the highest. You want to get the largest floor space you can afford. Hamsters which live under natural conditions live in the huge, flat areas, so they are used to that.

First holding.

Most important thing: you can put your hand into the cage, but only when the hamster is awake, otherwise you can accidently scare him and he can bite you. You need to make this process slowly, remember that hamsters don’t have good eyes, so they rely mostly on their smell. Before you even touch him, you should get used your hamster to the smell of your hand. When your hamster starts to feel comfortable with your hand, he should climb in your hand himself.

Repeat everything: put time and patience.

Repeating a second step should speed up whole taming process. Don’t give up, even if in your case it looks harder than you expected. It will take time to acclimate your hamster, but they are beautiful small rodents, so it is well worth it.